Ovation for Diem

Only once since he took office in the dark days after Dienbienphu had Premier Ngo Dinh Diem stirred from the demoralized capital of Saigon. Last week, through dust and monsoon rain, he toured the war-battered villages of his home country in Central Viet Nam, and the result was an unexpected triumph. In light khaki suit, he jeeped 70 miles through villages and was cheered by 300,000 rice growers, coolies and fishermen.

Premier Diem, stiff and cautious at the tour's beginning, was soon beaming like a student who had unexpectedly won a popularity contest. He shook hands with Buddhist monks, Catholic priests and Moslem sorcerers, passed out twelve hard-to-get National Orders to goateed dignitaries living under terrorist threats in villages, and 50 Croix de Vaillance. He sat happily while half-naked tribesmen beat gongs in his honor, while a white-haired patriarch dressed as a Thai ballet girl performed a dance of the fans.

In one straw-hut village, Diem chatted with the lepers. In another, he led a torchlight parade of barefoot children. Everywhere, Diem ignored the danger from Communist infiltrators and let himself be jostled in the crowds. "Hoan ho thu tuong Ngo Dinh Diem!" (Cheers for Premier Diem), they cried, and the spontaneity of the welcome startled foreign correspondents who had been low-rating Diem's popular appeal.

But some of the cheerers remembered Diem when he had been a well-liked provincial governor 25 years before. Another reason for the enthusiasm: the troops, officers, speeches, civil servants, roaring planes and flags of his tour were all Vietnamese--there was hardly a French colonial in sight. One Vietnamese soldier asked his officer whether he should applaud the accompanying foreigners. "Of course," the Vietnamese lieutenant replied. "They are foreign correspondents--not foreign mandarins."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.